Biography

Born in Tehran. Trained first as an architect. Countertenor, composer and choral conductor between Maastricht, Aachen and Cologne since 2019.

The Iranian countertenor, composer and choral conductor Nima Pournaghshband is a versatile young artist of the German and Dutch music scene and lives in Vaals, right on the German border near Aachen. He was a finalist of the television opera competition ARIA 2024 and won both the jury and the audience prize at the 21st Maastricht Music Awards in 2023.

In June 2026 he sang the Zia Principessa in Puccini’s Suor Angelica at Theater Aachen, in Ramona Bartsch’s staging conducted by Timo Handschuh, in which the part was reconceived for him as Zio Principe. Der Opernfreund wrote: “The colour of this Iranian countertenor is ravishingly beautiful, the phrasing perfect. He sings almost without vibrato and so conveys the coldness of the character.” Before that he sang the leading role of Armindo in Luigi Mancia’s La Partenope with the Kairos Orchestra under Kai Wessel, the work’s first performance in more than 300 years, recorded and broadcast by WDR Köln. In October 2025 he sang Freddy Orlog in Samuel Roth’s Die Ermittlung and Jim in Anton-Konrad Salow’s Speed at the Hochschule für Musik und Tanz Köln, directed by Andreas Durban.

His solo engagements in the coming seasons include Bach’s Christmas Oratorio with the Aachener Barockorchester and with philharmonie zuidnederland, Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater with Ad Mosam Barok, and Daan Manneke’s Da Pacem with Studium Chorale at the Orgelpark Amsterdam. He has sung the alto part in Bach’s St John Passion and the countertenor part in Orff’s Carmina Burana, and has given numerous song recitals and solo programmes in the Netherlands and Germany.

Alongside singing, composition and choral conducting are central to his work. As a composer he brings Persian poetry and vocal traditions together with European, and particularly Baroque, practice, writing above all for his own voice and for the ensembles he works with.

His oratorio Khane Chaharom (The Fourth Labour), after Ferdowsi’s Shahnameh, is scored for countertenor and small orchestra and was written for himself and Ensemble Zuiderwind; after its premiere in 2023 it was broadcast by L1 Radio. Lalaei (2025), for countertenor and Baroque ensemble, grows out of a traditional Persian lullaby and has been released on more than fifty digital platforms, among them Spotify and Apple Music Classical. Agnus Dei, for eight-part a cappella ensemble and written for the Aachen vocal soloists AaVokaSo, treats the subject of war through a personal story tied to his homeland.

Further works include Faryad for two pianos and countertenor on a poem by Mehdi Akhavan Sales; Spaghetti for voice on his own Italian libretto, premiered at the Maastricht Music Awards 2023; Soleils Couchants (2024) for six women’s voices a cappella after Paul Verlaine; an a cappella arrangement of To ey Pari Kojaei for four voices (2019); and Hamoun (2018) for cello and electronics. He also writes music for short films and regularly takes part in improvisation projects.

As a choral conductor he has worked with the Belgian chamber choir Pro Arte and the Maastricht ensemble Madan Sara, and since 2026 he has directed the choir Dozzina in Maastricht. He is also vocal coach of the Aachener Männer Vokalensemble.

Since 2020 he has also worked as a photographer and videographer in classical music, making portraits and concert images for musicians.

He is currently studying for a second Master’s degree, in Baroque singing, at the Hochschule für Musik und Tanz Köln, where in 2026 he completed his Master’s in voice and music theatre in the class of the countertenor Prof. Kai Wessel. From 2019 to 2024 he studied voice with Yvonne Schiffelers and choral conducting with Hans Leenders at the Conservatorium Maastricht. Born in Tehran, he first trained as an architect at the National University of Iran (Shahid Beheshti), alongside years of private study and international masterclasses in voice, piano, cello, composition, harmony and counterpoint, before moving to the Netherlands in 2019.

In the 2026/27 season he appears at Theater Aachen in the new Baroque opera FURIOSO, and in February 2027 he sings the Refugee in Jonathan Dove’s Flight, a joint production of the Hochschule für Musik Franz Liszt Weimar and the Schiller-Theater Rudolstadt.

Masterclasses have taken him to Philippe Herreweghe, Dorothee Mields, Uta Schwabe, Elisabeth Scholl, Alessandro de Marchi, Paul Goodwin, György Vashegyi, Abigail Richards, Hans Eijsackers and Shunske Sato.

Biographies, CV and press photos.